MATE ROV
Underwater Robotics Competition
2016 - 2019
University of Sheffield
This is an annual competition which was held in the USA for building underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to perform tasks underwater. I was one of the co-founders of Avalon, an underwater robotics team to participate in this competition. I can easily say that by far this is the project that taught me the most about the different systems of a robot.
2019 - Maneuverability Test
2018 - Qualification Video
2017 - Qualification Video
Tasks
- Writing code for micro-controllers (Arduino which is effectively C++) for controlling/interfacing different actuators including brushed DC, stepper, BLDC motors & pneumatic valves. Along with using communication protocols including serial, I2C, SPI & UDP.
- Writing PID controllers
- Writing a GUI using Python PyQt with the use of threads along with interfacing joysticks to control the various aspects of the robot, the GUI showed the various robot states.
- Image Processing using OpenCV for things like shape detection, line following and length measurement.
- Power system, PCB design (THT and SMD components), working with analog, digital & IP cameras.
- Mechanical design of electrical & pneumatic actuators, sealing against water and chassis design, this was all done on SOLIDWORKS.
- Fabrication of mechanical components using 3D printing, laser cutting, turning, CNC routing & CNC folding along with the material selection.
- Managing the mechanical, electrical and software teams, providing guidance, technical support and facilitating decision making and lots of motivation to keep people working. I also worked on recruiting members and interviewing them.
- Raising £12,650 from various sources, contacting sponsors (managed to get free components worth £5,500 from RS and MacArtney) and writing proposals.
Results
All these activities took place across the 4 years I have been participating in this competition. In 2019 I was team's CEO, we got the 11th place out of 25 teams in the international competition which took place in Kingsport, Tennessee and we were the 9th in the underwater product demonstration and the top team from the UK. Also in 2019 I was awarded one of the 3 MVP Engineering Pretension Awards in the explorers category (university category). In the previous years I was the team's CTO, so I was more focused on the technical aspects of the robot.
Avalon @ MATE ROV 2019, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA